I will never forget the feeling I had when I was younger when my parents would drive past the high school. I remember always being so intimidated by the “older kids” and thinking I would never be old enough to go there. I also had this belief that high school would be just like it was in the movies, and the best time of my life. I definitely did not know what I was getting myself into that’s for sure. Getting ready for my first day of high school, I am ashamed to admit that I listened to “Fifteen” by Taylor Swift and thought that I was so old. I remember walking through the hallway on the first day, nervous, lost, and terrified of all of these people who were so much bigger than me. While running through the hallway, I thought that high school would never end; that these 4 years would last a lifetime. And now I’m graduating. The “lifetime” went by in the blink of an eye.
High school was nothing that I thought it would be. It was challenging transitioning freshman year and then junior year made me question my will to live. Through all of that, so many personal things happened out of side of school. Getting my license I thought was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and I felt like such a grown up. Now, I look back and wish my mom still took me to school every day like she used to. People changed and grew up, and everyone took one large step in finding themselves. All of us have pretty much been together since our Oakwood days, and have all changed pretty drastically. While looking back on pictures from how ugly and embarrassing we are, its funny for sure, but its so crazy to still be friends with so many of the same people.
And now, it’s all beginning to change. While the majority of us are staying here, many are leaving and everything will be different. Now, its like high school all over again; except without our moms to make us lunch every morning before school. We cant even begin to imagine what college, let alone the rest of our lives, have in store for us.
On my first day of senior year, I listened to “fifteen” again just to take me back to my first first day of high school. I realized, fully realized, how much I had changed over the past three years and was amazed. It seemed so long since freshman year, but at the same time its almost like it was yesterday. And that is going to be the way the next four years of our lives go as well.
We did it, class of 2016. We survived high school; but most importantly: we survived Junior year.
taylornoelle28 